


Summer Collision

by Ecopanda



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: M/M, Monster Falls AU, eventually BillDip, most of the characters will be in this, mostly plot, rating will probably change later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-03 15:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecopanda/pseuds/Ecopanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The twins spend the summer in Gravity Falls.</p>
<p>Monster Falls AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

_There exists in today’s world monsters, spirits, and other strange abnormalities. No one is exactly certain how these beings came to be, only that they are here with us now. Ancient script suggests that there once was a time when these anomalies did not walk the Earth; however, these date back over 10,000 years ago. Records of strange tremors, flashes of multicolored lights, shadows of mysterious creatures suggesting a world other than our own – all of which were left unexplained, dismissed as a mischievous god’s play and the drug induced hallucinations of the literate few. These beings stand on par, if not above, the human race, and while many of these creatures have expressed their peaceful intentions, the aggressive few overshadow them, resulting in a widespread fear of the unknown. While there are those that have accepted their presence, others live in fear, claiming that these monsters threaten the very existence of the human race itself…_

“Mabel quit jumping around you’re going to hurt yourself. What will you do if you fall off your seat and roll to the front of the bus?”

“I can’t help it I’m so excited! And you’ll just help me up like you always do,” Mabel said, bouncing up and down on the bus seat in excitement and squeezing her water bottle so tight that it looked like it would explode at any second. “Even if it is just to visit our great uncle Stan, we never get to travel anywhere.” She turned to her twin, flashing him a grin and lightly punching his shoulder. “Lighten up bro, it’s summer vacation now. Who knows what could happen?”

Dipper sighed and looked out the window at the passing trees, watching as the sun flickered in and out of view between the leaves. Dipper and his twin sister Mabel were seated in the back, the only two passengers on the small bus as it sped through the thick forest. Tall pine trees rushed past the run-down bus, the only transport in and out of Gravity Falls unless you had a sturdy enough car and money to pay for all the gas it took to get out here.

Gravity Falls was a small, secluded town in the middle of Nowhere, Oregon. Its expansive forests and mountainous terrain left it isolated from many other towns, but also a nice pit-stop for any tourists traveling through the area. The town itself was comprised of only a few family owned stores, a barbers shop, a small grocer, and a lone diner, to name a few. It had a homely feel to it, wherein everyone knows each other and there were no secrets.

Well, there were always secrets, just some more obvious than others.

He had mentioned that tourists stopped through here hadn’t he? Well, there was a reason for that. Gravity Falls was a _special_ town. Not your usual small college town or a collection of mansions and designer shops kind of town. No, Gravity Falls was a bit more unique than that.

It had monsters.

Well, “monsters” might be too negative a word to describe them, but the creatures that lived in Gravity Falls were pretty much that. They were every kind of race except human. Werewolves, gremlins, cupids, dryads, you name it. Even the occasional angel would pass through town. The town was founded as a refugee for the paranormal, a place to escape the discrimination and persecution from the rest of the state. And as technology advanced, monster hunters begin to actually have an impact on the populations of these mysterious beings, especially those that were incapable of human speech. Many of them survived only in the unexplored expanse that surrounded Gravity Falls, its forested walls concealing those that wished to remain hidden and isolating the town from its neighbors.

Although it continues to baffle scientists, some monsters posses the ability of human speech. It’s believed that long ago there was a plague or something of the like that led to a decrease in the populations of monsters and in order to save themselves, some of them began to reproduce with humans. The result was a species that’s physical characteristics varied between individuals but was capable of human speech, a wide range of emotional response, and rational thought. Well, rational most of the time.

“Mabel where do you keep getting Smile Dip? It was discontinued years ago,” Dipper said in shock as she pulled a glittery, rainbow packet with a cartoon animals on the side out of her backpack from the seat next to her and tore it open, promptly dumping the whole thing in her mouth at once. 

“It’s from my super secret sugar stash. I only let myself eat it on special occasions, like today since it’s the first time we get to spend the whole summer away to go on crazy adventures!” Mabel grinned, quickly becoming lost in her sugar induced coma.

And this was the reason they were headed to Gravity Falls to spend the summer with a great uncle they barely knew. Well, it wasn’t the entire reason, but their parents had wanted the twins to get out of the house and have fun for a change instead of staying cooped up inside with their respective toys, Dipper with his books and games, and Mabel with her arts and crafts.

They were monsters.

At least, Mabel was considered a monster as far as appearance went. While their appearances varied slightly, Mabel could be described as a textbook example of a mermaid. Her upper half was mostly human, with the exception of three faintly pink gills on either side of her neck that were usually hidden by her handmade turtleneck sweaters. She also had wicked sharp teeth and nails, but she kept her nails short and her shiny braces distracted from her teeth. Her long, wavy brown hair fell mid-back and framed her heart shaped face. Although, it was her lower half that usually caught people’s attention. From the waist down a long fish tail extended, its pink scales glittering silver in the sunlight. It was strong and graceful, pleasant to the eye. Normally, she hid it under a fuzzy blanket and behind fake feet while sitting in a wheelchair, so as to attract less attention to the fact that she wasn’t fully human. It was honestly a shame that some people were so anti-monster that they’d refuse to even acknowledge them. Mabel was beautiful inside and out and anyone that disagreed was a fool. She’d put others before herself and loved to make friends with complete strangers. Unfortunately, few were to be made in their hometown, another reason why their parents had them go stay the summer away from home as soon as they were old enough to take care of themselves. Mabel had a cooler of water in the pouch behind her chair, and a drinking tube extended from it so she always had access to water and never had to worry about drying out.

Unlike Mabel, Dipper was about as human as they came. His parents too, were human, as no one knew exactly what caused it but monster blood tended to skip generations here and there.  He was awkward, with long limbs that didn’t quite yet suit his young teenage body. His hair, brown like his twin’s, was more curly than wavy. He kept his bangs a little on the long side to cover the one part of him that people would question – his birthmark, a splattering of dots resembling the constellation the Big Dipper, hence his name. If anything, it was his biggest weakness. Growing up, when he wasn’t pretending to be brave and protecting Mabel, he was often teased. He wore a faded navy vest over an old red t-shirt and cargo shorts, a pair of worn out sneakers on his feet. While Mabel loved to be in the center of things, he preferred to hang out on the sidelines. He just wasn’t that kind of guy, and instead he’d become Mabel’s personal aid. The two were inseparable.

Mabel leaned into him as the bus took a sudden turn, hugging the cliffside to avoid falling off the road. Glancing out the window he saw the town come into view. They passed under a crumbling railroad track and began driving into the valley. There was a waterfall, a long stream of water flowing over the cliff and pooling in a large lake below. Stretched out next to it was the town itself, a collection of old buildings of various colors surrounding the town center where a statue of the town’s founder, Nathanial Northwest, stood.

Their great uncle, “grunkle” as Mabel had begun to call him, Stan’s house was located on the edge of town, near the entrance and conveniently next to the first bus stop. The bus pulled up, and after shuddering and creaking loudly, it came to a stop to let them off. They scrambled to gather their bags together before moving to get off. Dipper carried Mabel to the front of the bus, her tail wrapped in its usual blanket, as the bus driver, a young man in his twenties who looked as if he regretted accepting this job, hopped off to set up her wheelchair. He set Mabel down and quickly positioned her fake feet before anyone could see while the bus driver scrambled back to grab their bags and deposit them next to the two.

They barely had enough time to turn and thank him though as the doors slammed shut and he sped away. The twins turned and realized why the bus stop was right in front of their grunkle’s house.

It was a giant tourist attraction, a sign that read MYSTERY SHACK with the letter ‘s’ falling off stretched across the top. The building itself was shaped like a shortened T, one long cabin with a shorter part extending off. This had a smaller sign on it with GIFTS written in bold lettering, a small porch with a soda machine and bench, and a weather vane shaped like a question mark adorning the roof. Also across the roof was an assortment of planks that appeared to have been someone’s idea of fixing the roof, although they were so haphazardly nailed down it was hard to say if they actually made a difference without going inside. There were strings of little alternating red and yellow flags marking the path to the shack and hanging from the trees, and a tall totem pole topped with some kind of bird that appeared to watch them as they approached the shack stood out front.

They approached the closest door, the one leading to what they presumed to be a gift shop, with Dipper moving some spare planks over from the side of the shack to build a makeshift ramp for Mabel to get onto the small porch. He pushed her up the ramp so that they were both in front of the door and dumped their bags onto the bench.

“So should we knock or just go right in? I mean, it’s a gift shop so they probably wouldn’t think it was too weird if we just walked in but we still have all of our bags and stu- Mabel!” he shouted as she pushed open the rickety door and rolled her wheelchair right inside.

“Hi I’m Mabel! I like smiles and having fun!” she said, smiling as if she had just been dropped off at Disneyworld with free reign of the place. Which, in terms of the number of colorful oddities on display, pretty much summed up the shop’s interior. If you were into the paranormal, that is.

Lining the walls of the shop were all sorts of knickknacks, from the usually snow globes and t-shirts to strange teeth and horns that looked like they were still covered in the blood of the animal they came from. There were even a few animal heads mounted to the wall; although, some looked as if someone had taken two normal animals and mashed them together while others appeared as if a fake horn had just been attached to their forehead. Hats, skulls, and even jarred remains-was that a dismembered hand?- sat stacked on the shelves. Next to the door was a small checkout counter with a cash register that had a “no refunds” sign hanging from it and manned by a bored, redheaded teen reading a magazine.

“Welcome to the Mystery Shack. Word of wisdom, don’t bother trying to haggle with the old man about the prices or they’ll just go up,” she said without looking up from her magazine. The muffled sounds of some pop song came from her headphones. She was wearing a dark green plaid shirt with a little nametag that said WENDY pinned onto it in clear print.

“Er…Hi there. Um, I’m Dipper and this is my sister Mabel. We’re looking for out Great Uncle Stan Pines…This was supposed to be his address, but we must have been given the wrong number. Do you think that you could help us?” Dipper grabbed the handles on the back of Mabel’s wheelchair to keep her from rolling away to explore.

Wendy looked up at them then.

“Oh hey!” she said, shocked as she took off her headphones. “Wow you guys haven’t changed at all. You look almost like you do in the picture your uncle gave me. The picture’s from when you guys were twelve, but I guess three years doesn’t make that big of a difference.” She smiled and said, looking between the two of them with interest. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to seem like a total creep or anything but your uncle asked me to be on the lookout for you two while he’s out giving tours.”

Dipper shook his head at this.

“No not at all,” he said. He took in Wendy’s profile as she came around the counter to lean against it, arms on either side for support. She was tall, a few inches taller than himself, with waist-length red hair than fanned out behind her. Her dark green plaid shirt was untucked over a pair of worn jeans held up by a leather belt where – was that an axe? – was hanging loosely by her side. She had on an old hunter’s cap and tall hunter’s boots. There was a splatter of freckles across her face that accented her green eyes. She seemed like a normal human.

And in Dipper’s opinion, she was really pretty.

“Um… so where is our grunkle anyways?” he sputtered out. He was really bad around attractive people. Well, he was bad around people in general. That was always more Mabel’s area of expertise.

“Grunkle?”

“Mabel’s abbreviation of ‘great-uncle’,” he said as Mabel rolled away again to explore the shelves while he was distracted.

“Huh,” she said, glancing at the clock on the wall, “He should be back soon. He’s out giving a tour right now. Why don’t you guys leave your suitcases over by the counter here and you can go explore around a bit. For someone not from here this place can be pretty interesting.”

Wendy helped him drag their bags behind the counter before resuming her original position reading a magazine.

“When he gets back I’ll let him know that you guys are here,” she said.

He turned back then to get Mabel and was not surprised to find that she’d managed to find a vending machine near the back of the store where she’d been trying to get snacks out while he’d been talking with Wendy.

“It’s trapped! Everything is terrible forever!” she shouted while pounding the front of the machine.

“Mabel!” he called out. Great, she was going to break the something before they even met their grunkle.

“It was almost out but now it’s stuck! What will we do?” she cried in mock anguish.

“Hey dudes calm down. Want to know a trick?” a large man said, walking up to them. He was tall with a large belly covered with a faded green shirt that had a giant question mark on it, and appeared to be in his early twenties. His young face, cargo shorts, joyful demeanor, and brown ball cap added to a boyish charm he seemed to possess.

“Bo bi di do, bop!” he said, while hitting the machine on the side with a combination of slaps and punches. The door to the vending machine popped open.

“A genius taught me that one,” he said while scooping up an armful of snacks. He turned to face them and smiled. “This just in, the weather station called and….CANDY BLIZZARD!” he yelled and spread his arms, to let the snacks rain down on Mabel.

“Woohoo!” she cheered in delight.

Dipper face-palmed.

“The name’s Soos by the way,” he said, chuckling. “I work here as a sort of odd-jobs kind of guy. Anything you need, don’t be afraid to ask.”

Suddenly, there was a muffled shout from outside.

“Son of a motherless goat… Soos get out here!” a gruff voice called.

“Well, that’s my cue. See you dudes later,” Soos said, turning to wave to them as he ran out. “Coming Mr. Pines!” As he left, a group of tourists began filing in, apparently having just finished the tour. They were all human, each with large cameras and ridiculous expressions plastered across their faces as if they’d never seen anything monster related in their lives.

To be honest, they probably hadn’t. At least, not at the level of absurdity that the Mystery Shack had to offer. They walked around, grabbing any overpriced souvenir that attracted their eye before heading over to Wendy who only sighed as she was forced to actually work.

Dipper helped Mabel scoop up the snacks that she’d missed and put them in the backpack on the back of her wheelchair. She definitely didn’t need this many sweets, but her high metabolism allowed her to eat just about anything she wanted. And with the abnormal amount of water she had to drink to stay on land, most it was just going to be flushed out anyways.

The tourists appeared to be satisfied with their findings as they began to trickle out, most likely towards town for more “sight-seeing”. Soon it was just Dipper and Mabel, both of which had taken to exploring the little gift shop, and Wendy, who was stifling a yawn every now and then as she read her magazine. Dipper walked near the a shelf with hats and picked one, a blue and white cap with a blue pine tree on it, and put it on, admiring how it hid his birthmark.

Just then there was a loud banging noise as the door was shoved open. A hunched figure shuffled in, a large, thick blanket wrapped around itself. No…not a blanket, it was a pair of large, leathery wings wrapped around the figure. They were a dark grey and seemed as if they were made of stone. The figure walked in, mumbling as it did.

“Stupid tourists….if the sign says don’t lean over the edge then why the hell would you lean over the edge?... I swear if they weren’t walking moneybags…” it grumbled. “Wendy have you seen my back pillow? I’m going to age an extra 10 years every time I have to save a dumb kid who can’t read a damn sign. Soos is out there building an actual fence so I don’t get sued.” It stretched its’ wings out behind it, not entirely, but enough that it exposed its’ face.

“Ahhh!” the twins screamed.

The creature, with the face of an old man, had long fangs and one of the most intense scowls they’d ever seen. His hands and feet had long, sharp talons that Dipper knew could shred him in an instant. He was dressed in a dark, worn suit, minus the shoes, and had a pair of horns curved around a red fez with a yellow fish on it on his head. He was on the taller side, but his large wings caused him to hunch over. The really shocking thing though was his skin: a dark grey, so brittle and grainy that it appeared to be made of stone. If he hadn’t just walked inside, Dipper would have taken him for a statue.

That is, if people left life-size statues of gargoyles just lying around.

“What are you kids screaming at… Dipper and Mabel Pines!” the gargoyle exclaimed, turning to face them now. Wendy looked over his shoulder from the counter and was trying hard not to laugh at the bewilderment on the twins faces. Mabel started speaking quickly.

“Ohmygoshyou’reagargoylehowdoyoumovewiththosewingsheybyanychanceyouwouldn’thappentobeour- “

“-Grunkle Stan,” Dipper finished, knowing it to be true. There was something he couldn’t place, something that just clicked when he saw him. He didn’t know how he could know this though, seeing as this was their first time ever meeting him.

“That’s me, Stanford Pines. And what’s with all of the screaming? I’m not that hideous. And how are you here so early? I thought you kids weren’t supposed to get here until this evening” he said, glancing at the clock. It was only 4:36 in the afternoon, and the sun was still high in the sky.

“Sorry, we were just kind of startled. There aren’t a lot of monsters where we live,” he sputtered out quickly. “And, uh, we got to the station too early and caught a different bus.” He still couldn’t believe that their grunkle was a giant gargoyle. He almost didn’t even look human.

“Um, so mom never mentioned that you were, you know, a gargoyle and all that. I mean, I guess I should have known that you wouldn’t be entirely human, seeing as you live in Gravity Falls, but you think it might have come up…” Dipper said, mumbling more to himself towards the end.

“What? Oh,” Stan said looking down as if he just noticed his appearance. He waved his hand and it was as if he temporarily turned into a hologram. The air around him shimmered, briefly flickering in a rainbow of scattered light before vanishing. In his place was a normal, human old man, complete with a hunch and a five o’clock shadow.

The twins stared at him, gaping.

“Sorry about that, kids. That image is more for the tourists and the townsfolk. Soos and Wendy know, but they work here so it’d be too much work to try to keep up the act,” he said, straitening his suit. He had a full head of hair, albeit grey, and hardened features. Well, he looked a bit nicer than he did as a gargoyle, but not by much.

“How did you do that?” Mabel asked, rolling forward to make sure he was real. She poked his side.

“Hey! Look kids it’s nothing special, just a little parlor trick I picked up a couple of years ago,” he said.

“So then which one of you is the real Grunkle Stan?” asked Mabel, squinting her eyes at him suspiciously.

“Yeah, and really, how did you do that? That could be really helpful if Mabel could learn how to do that too,” said Dipper, waving his hand behind him to make sure the wings were actually gone. He loved his sister and didn’t want her to have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair just to be with the ones she loved.

“Maybe one day kids, but I’m not going to tell you now.” Stan grabbed their bags to help take them upstairs. They walked through the gift shop to the house part of the shack, before stopping at the base of the stairs.

“I guess I didn’t think this through,” Stan said. “I was planning on having the two of you stay in the attic, but I guess that won’t work if Mabel has her wheelchair…” he trailed off. “Hm…well, Mabel if you don’t mind there’s a small lake behind the shack, just beyond the treeline. There’s a river that runs through it so it should be clean enough…”

 “That’s fine!” Mabel replied cheerfully. “I’ve never lived in a lake before. At home, I’d have to sleep in the bathtub or in a kiddie pool. This should be fun!”

“I don’t know Mabel… You don’t know what could be living in the woods…And I won’t be there to help you if something goes wrong…” Dipper said nervously.

“She’ll be safe. The river that runs through it is too shallow for anything dangerous to swim through. There’s a few fish and a turtle or two, but they’re all mostly harmless. ”

“I guess it’d be okay then…” Dipper trailed off.

“Cheer up bro, you’ll be fine without me,” said Mabel. Although Mabel relied heavily on Dipper physically, Dipper relied on Mabel mentally, more than he cared to admit. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll be able to handle myself.”

Dipper didn’t doubt that she could.

He grabbed his bags and dragged them up the stairs, and found himself in a large empty room. Not bothering to look around, he walked towards the door closest to him and opened it. The room he found was fairly large for having two twin sized beds crammed in it. Grunkle Stan seemed to have mistakenly assumed that Mabel would have been able to make it up the stairs despite her tail. The roof was slanted to form a triangle, and light shown into the room from a single triangular window at the end. There was a small closet near the door, and a curtain near the wall farthest from the window. Moving it aside, he found a small space, most likely used for extra storage, that was filled with items in the back, but relatively empty near the front. Closing the curtain, he walked out of the bedroom back to the staircase to explore. The staircase had led to a large, empty room with two doors, one a small closet near the back of the room and the other his bedroom. There was a large window with a red cushioned set built into the wall near the staircase. The window was a little bit unsettling, a set of red glass planes arranged to appear as a triangle with what looked to be a single eye. Dipper stared at the window for awhile before he became too unnerved and had to look away. He felt like he had seen that image somewhere before, but he couldn’t place where. It had seemed oddly familiar yet he couldn’t recall it. Dismissing it, he walked back into his room and towards the bed on the left to set his bags down on it before going back downstairs to his grunkle and sister.

The trio walked, and rolled, out towards the small lake. Grunkle Stan was right, it lay just beyond the treeline. It was close enough that if Mabel needed help he could be there right away, but still far enough away to give her some privacy.

Dipper heard the soft sound of a babbling brook as they approached the lake. It was beautiful in a way, with tall pine trees providing shade from the harsh sunlight and surprisingly clear water that flowed into the lake from a small waterfall. Small wildflowers bloomed near the edge of the water, little spots of yellow, pink, and white against the dark green of the forest floor.

“Wow…” sighed Mabel. “It’s a lot prettier than I expected.”

“Hopefully this’ll do. I’ll talk with Soos about fixing up a little shack out here for your stuff. It’ll flood during heavy rainstorms so we’ll have to keep an inflatable pool in the Mystery Shack for backup, and then we’ll have to figure out an easy way to get you in and out of your wheelchair…” said Stan.

“It’ll be fine,” she said.

“Okay, before I release you little demons there are some things you should know. One, everyone in Gravity Falls is not human. No exceptions. That’s one mistake that many newcomers make. If a person is human, you’ll know right away because they’ll be a tourist and will stand out. So basically, don’t be deceived, and trust no one. I’m not the only one in the town that’s not quite what they seem,” Stan said, not meeting their eyes.

“Okay but what about Wendy and Soos?” Dipper countered. “They seemed pretty normal to me.”

“Them? Wendy’s pretty normal for the most part, but I’ll let her explain. She’s one of those, what do you call them, werewolves. Really enjoys acting like a normal human though. As for Soos, we’re still not sure…he seems to be a late bloomer. He doesn’t have major family in the area except for an old grandmother, but no one ever sees her.”

That made sense, Dipper thought, for Soos at least. Wendy was really chill, but every werewolf tale he’d ever heard had talked about them being uncontrollable with massive tempers. Soos on the other hand seemed as if he was still a child in an adults’ body. It kind of made sense that he’d be a late bloomer in the supernatural sense too.

“Another thing, it’s fine that Mabel stays in this lake because it’s close and all that, but there’s another lake on the other side of the town. It’s fairly large, and because of that there are lots of things swimming in there. Some good, some bad. Most of the really dangerous creatures don’t last too long here, and go out to the ocean, but there’s been some talk around town that there’s a siren that’s been swimming around. It’d probably be best if you two stayed away from there, at least until they figure out what it’s doing here,” he cautioned.

“A siren? That’s almost the same as Mabel though, so it couldn’t be too bad right?”

“Wrong kid. Siren’s are some of the worst sea creatures. They lure you in with their human appearance and then drag you under. A single siren has the power to take down a full ship of experienced sailors with almost no damage to itself. You might want to study up on a some of the supernatural if you’re going to be living here.”

The twins looked at each other before nodding to their grunkle.

“We understand, we’ll be careful.”

Dipper helped Mabel out of her chair and lowered her into the water. With a quick splash, she dived into the lake and disappeared, resurfacing on the other side and waving at them.

“Well, I’ll leave you kids to get situated and unpacked. I have to run to the store to buy food,” Stan said as he turned to go back. He disappeared into the trees, and the twins heard the sound of a car turning on before it faded away.

Dipper looked back at Mabel swimming around. It had been so long since she’d had the chance to just _swim_. She looked more free and happy than he’d seen her in a long time. Her iridescent scales sparkled in the flickers of sunlight from between the trees, and it seemed as if this lake had been made just for her. He moved her bags closer to the edge of the water so they’d be within her reach and leaned her wheelchair against a tree, locking the brakes, so that it wouldn’t roll away.

He called out to her to let her know that he was going back, but he wasn’t sure she heard him.

He turned and began walking back to the shack.


	2. A Day in Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper thinks about some things and the twins take a trip into town.  
> Also, Wendy makes an appearance or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took much longer to finish than it should have.

That window was really bothering him.

Dipper had been trying to sleep for the past four hours but with no luck. It was probably just because it was his first night staying away from home without his sister nearby, but for some reason he was unable to fall asleep. He tossed and turned, but felt compelled instead to stare at the moonlight as it filtered through the glass planes of the window, leaving a small, pale triangle of light on the floor.

He had been thinking about the window for most of the time. Not the window in his room, but the one in the loft with the deep crimson glass and the mysterious pattern. He knew that he had seen that image before, but he couldn’t figure out where. He had been thinking about it for a while now and nothing had come to mind. It definitely hadn’t been anywhere at his home in Piedmont, so he must have seen it in a book he’d read.

With that thought in mind, Dipper rolled out of bed and flicked on the light as he walked towards the tall shelf near the foot of the other bed. While the bottom shelves were filled with old junk, spare parts, and the like, the top two were filled with books. Along with a few of his favorite mystery novels he had brought with him that he’d shelved neatly on the lower shelf, was a hodgepodge of others, everything from children’s books to history encyclopedias. Among these were a book on the supernatural and a book on ancient symbols and writings. Thinking they might be useful, he grabbed them both. As he did so, he noticed a red string sticking out between two books on the top shelf.

Curious, he put down the two books and moved a crate over to climb on top. He pulled on the string, but it didn’t budge. Moving the books aside, he found that the string was actually a bookmark in a dusty book that had been crammed behind the others as if someone had put it on the shelf but then forgotten about it.

He pulled it out.

It turned out to be an old journal, not a book, and was a faded red with gold edging.  On the cover was a six-fingered hand in the same gold as the edging. He ran his hand over the cover to wipe the dust away, revealing a large 3 written in the palm of the strange hand. Opening it, he turned to the page that was bookmarked and found the image that had been haunting him for the past four hours.

Dipper let out a squeak in surprise and stumbled back, dropping the journal as he fell off of the crate with a loud thud. He held his breath and waited for his grunkle to come upstairs and yell at him for making loud noises this late at night, but he never came. Sitting up, he closed the journal and gathered the three books and a flashlight into his arms before flicking off the light and leaving the room.

In the loft, the sounds of late night television shows accompanied by snoring drifted up the stairs. Dipper crept across the room and sat on the cushioned seat below the window. Switching on the flashlight, he opened the journal and flipped through the entries. There was no name mentioned anywhere, and the entries spanned across 2 years, but the most recent one was from over 30 years ago. While the edges of the pages had yellowed and were coated in dust, the interior of the book appeared to be as clean as it was the day it was written. It was only half filled, and the last few entries were barely legible. At first, the writing appeared to only grow lighter towards the end of an entry, but as he read through the others he realized that it began to disappear entirely. The writing was shaky, and words, later whole phrases, were missing from the entries. Finally, the last entry, the one with the haunting drawing, showed a two-dimensional pyramid with a single eye wearing a bowtie and a top hat, and holding a cane. Underneath it, four words were scrawled in rushed handwriting and almost impossible to read. He could only make out a few letters leaving him with: Imp  t  t? N  e: Bi  i h r ?   il?

Other than the small picture, nothing else in the entry seemed to bear any resemblance to the mysterious triangle in the window. He set the journal aside with plans to read the other entries later and pulled out the book on supernatural phenomenon. It had a relatively plain cover considering its choice of topic and seemed to be more of an encyclopedia on the subject rather than a simple what’s-what. He skimmed the index, but he didn’t really have anything other than _strange triangle man with one eye_ to go on.

He decided to just flip through the book since skimming the index wasn’t giving him any leads. Skipping the individual sections, he focused on the generalized ones. Since it had the recognizable form of a pyramid, he figured it might be representative of some sort of Egyptian spirit of the dead, but nothing he came across matched. He thought about the small doodle in the journal. It hadn’t seemed like a particularly nice triangle-man, but then, it was hard to draw a one-eyed triangle as blatantly evil without spelling it out.

Well, it didn’t seem like an angel so looking into the other extreme couldn’t hurt.

Dipper turned to the section on demons and read through the summary. Most of it discussed the usual: the pros and cons of making deals with demons, possession, their preferred realms, etc. However, one little section did catch his eye. The passage mentioned that demons usually had some sort of symbol or simplified version of themself that they would use. “ _Whether to simply let their presence be known of or to stake their claim,”_ he read quietly, “ _every demon will leave a marking of some kind.”_

He looked up from his reading to stare at the window. The eye stared back at him, its translucent glass shining eerily in soft brightness produced by the flashlight. It was possible that it represented a demon, whether it was left in passing or his grunkle’s idea of making the mystery shack seem that much more mysterious.

He was probably just over thinking it.

Switching off the flashlight and setting book aside, Dipper opened the window a crack to let in some cool air. Outside, the moon illuminated the forest, casting a soft glow that made it seem almost ethereal. He heard the sounds of the nocturnal wildlife: the soft chirps of crickets, a hoot of an owl, and even the howl of a wolf that sounded way too close for comfort. Above, the stars shone brightly without the light of the moon, casting on the opposite side of the shack, and Dipper was actually able to make out some constellations.

There were the usual ones, like Draco and Cepheus, that you could see all year long, as well as a few others that were particular to the season. He saw Lupus, the wolf, and Libra, the scales, as they flickered in the sky. There was Hercules, posed mid-fight, the stars forever immortalizing his heroic deeds, and his namesake, Ursa Major a.k.a. the Big Dipper, stretched across the large expanse of the sky.

Dipper stared at it, absentmindedly rubbing his birthmark in thought. He’d been interested in the stars since he was little and had always wondered how one of them had managed to end up on his forehead. It was strange, one of those one-in-a-million happenings, but he’d never really known what to think about it. He used to think that it made him special, and that he secretly had superpowers and was just waiting for his time to emerge.

 So he’d put up with the bullying, hoping that one day something would happen and he’d be strong enough to fight back and really show them what he was made of; however, that day had still yet to come. Now older, he’d given up on that notion. Yeah there were bad guys out there, monsters too, but he’d never be able to beat them. Dipper sighed. What was he going to do with himself?

Outside, a loud howl resonated across the forest right below the window, followed by three others that appeared to be growing closer.

Dipper peaked through the small opening and froze, watching as a small, lithe wolf paced in front of the shack. Its auburn fur glinted in the moonlight, and he watched as it approached the patio by the back door. The wolf disappeared briefly from view before reappearing with a small tan backpack in its mouth, the sleeve of a familiar plaid shirt hanging out from the large pocket.

_Wendy?_ he thought, relaxing slightly.

Just then, three more wolves emerged from the shadows surrounding the forest. Each had the same fur as the first, but they were all much larger. They approached the wolf with the backpack as if waiting for it to give them an okay. The smaller wolf nodded to them before darting towards into the forest, the others following close behind. It was fast and graceful, the opposite of how Wendy had seemed when he saw her working. But since she probably had to deal with his grunkle and weird supernatural stuff every day, he could understand her not wanting to exert more energy than necessary.

As they were running, he saw the shirt catch on a branch and come out of the backpack. Ignorant to this, the wolves continued on, leaving the shirt to sway softly in the evening breeze, forgotten.

Dipper leaned back against the wall, relaxing completely now that they were gone.

He briefly thought of Mabel. He hoped she was okay in her small, little lake in the woods. Even if one of the wolves he’d seen had been Wendy, Dipper didn’t feel comfortable knowing that Mabel was out there alone at their mercy. He shook his head. No, she was definitely strong enough to take care of herself. It was her habit of trying to befriend every strange person or animal they came across that worried him.

Dipper stifled a yawn as he felt a wave of sleepiness wash over him. Even though he now had more questions than before, he felt like he was going to fall asleep any second now. Gathering the books and flashlight, he shuffled back to his bedroom before collapsing onto the bed. He pushed the stuff to the side of his bed before curling up on his side and slipping out of consciousness.

~

In his dream, he found himself in an empty field, the stars flickering against the black void above. Only, he didn’t recognize any of them, as if he was looking at them from an entirely different world. The pale golden grass around him brushed softly against his ankles as it swayed back and forth. Dipper looked around uncertainly, but there was nothing to see. No trees, no sun, no clouds, no life. Only the open expanse of the field around him and the unusual sky stretched above. Thinking he heard something, he turned and listened, but there was no sound other than the swaying of the grass. He didn’t know why, but this place felt wrong. It made him feel sad, and somehow he knew that it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Something had happened to it, something big that had left it deserted.

He felt a shift in the air from behind him. Turning around, he found himself face to face with the strange triangle man from the journal.

“So it’s you, hm?” he hummed softly, circling Dipper while doing so. “You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to find you.”

The triangle man was the same as he had been in the journal, except that now he was a loud yellow that glowed brightly against the blackness of the sky. He was a pyramid, only flatter, and had on a black top hat and a black bowtie. In his hand he twirled a black cane around, as if deep in thought. He really did look like the drawing in the journal though, almost as if he’d been animated and had walked right off of the page.

“Wow it’s been awhile since I’ve been like this. I kind of missed it, you know. ”

“Who are you? What are you?” Dipper asked in confusion. He tried to turn to face him, but he found himself frozen in place.

“It’s a good thing you came here when you did, we’re almost out of time. But then, isn’t that how it always is? The universe is strange that way,” the triangle man said, ignoring Dipper as if he hadn’t even spoken. “I search every nook and cranny out there for exactly the right key and here you are, right when I need you.”

“What key? Can you even hear me? Where are we? What even is this place?” Dipper questioned.

“You’re probably trying to talk to me aren’t you kid? Sorry but this is all just an illusion right now. Explaining everything would take way too long, but I’ll ask you one thing kid,” he said, his single eye boring straight into Dippers, “I found you. Can you find me?”

“Huh? What do you me-” he started to ask, but was cut short as the world around him began to dissolve. The grassy field broke apart under his feet as the stars above flickered out. He felt himself falling through the ground and into the void, the only thing still visible being the glowing triangle man waving as Dipper fell further and further away. The darkness enveloped him, and Dipper closed his eyes in fright as he felt himself fall into nothingness.

~

He awoke with a start, feeling as if he’d just been forced back into his body. _What had that dream been about anyways_ , he thought, but the details were slowing fading away. The triangle man had asked Dipper to find him? How was he supposed to do that? He decided to ignore it for now. It was probably just his overactive imagination after all that research last night.

Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he noticed that there was already light pouring in through the window. Hopefully Mabel hadn’t had any big plans this morning because she was going to be sorely disappointed.

He rolled out of bed and slowly got dressed, exchanging his undershirt for an old t shirt and pulling on a pair of cargo shorts. Grabbing his new hat, Dipper headed downstairs to the rest of his family.

In the small kitchen, he found grunkle Stan, human, drinking coffee while reading the newspaper at a small table. He had on only a tank top and boxers- was that a tattoo on his right shoulder?- and clearly hadn’t shaved yet. Opposite him was Mabel, who’d moved the other chair out of the way to make room for her wheelchair while she stuffed her face with mouthfuls of pancake, stopping only to drink enough water to keep her from passing out while eating. She was wearing a purple sweater with her name sewn across, working rainbow colored lights outlining it. Uh oh, it was her conversation-starter sweater. That could only mean one thing.

“Mabel isn’t it a little bit dangerous for a mermaid who lives in _water_ to wear a sweater with electric wiring sewn into it?” he asked in way of greeting as he walked towards the fridge to pour himself a glass of orange juice.

“You shush, I sit in a wheelchair _on land_ all day so I think it’s perfectly fine,” she said, pushing aside her now empty plate. “Besides, today I want to go into town and check out the sights. We could even try to get to know some of the townsfolk since we’ll be here all summer.”

There it was. Mabel had a large collection of sweaters, but she only brought out the light up ones when they were going to a place where they’d meet lots of new people. They usually distracted from the whole mermaid-in-a-wheelchair thing.

“Sure that’s fine,” he responded, gulping down his juice. He wasn’t too hungry right now so that should hold him off until lunch.

“I let you stay here all summer and I don’t even get a good morning? Geez,” his grunkle grumbled, looking up from the paper. “I’ve been completely ignored over here.”

“ G’morning Grunkle Stan.”

“There you go,” he said while folding the paper and setting it on the table. “I have no problem with you going off to town. But,” he paused, looking between the two, "you have to remember what I told you yesterday. Most of the townsfolk are pretty nice people. Kind of dumb, but overall harmless. Just watch out for the few that aren’t. And about that siren sighting I mentioned yesterday. There’s been no news about it yet so I want you two to stay away from there. Just don’t even go near it, you got it?”

“We know, we know. Dipper, go grab your stuff and let’s go!” Mabel said excitedly.

“Okay, let me just grab my cell phone and wallet from upstairs. I’ll meet you outside.”

Dipper went back upstairs, stuffed his phone and wallet in his pocket, and was about to go back downstairs but paused. As a last minute thought, he returned the two books he’d been reading last night to their spot on the shelf, but he hid the journal beneath his pillow.

He’d read more of that later.

Quickly running back downstairs, he pushed open the screen door to find Mabel absentmindedly spinning herself in circles while waiting for him. Finding no reason to hide her tail now that they were in Gravity Falls, it fanned out in front of her, although she still kept the blanket out of habit.

“You take foreeeeeverrrrrr,” she said, drawing out the last word.

“I know, let’s go,” he said while grabbing the handles on her chair. He began pushing her while walking down the dirt road that led from the shack to the town.

“Hey Mabel, have you noticed anything weird about the shack? There’s this weird window that’s been bothering me…”

“Not really. Which window? They all seemed normal enough to me,” she said while leaning back to look at him.

“It’s the one in the back, upstairs. It’s a normal window but there’s a stained glass triangle with a single eye. The glass is this pretty red color, but it almost seems menacing when the light shines through it. I don’t know, it just seems kind of out of place in the mystery shack,” he finished lamely.

“That one? I didn’t see anything weird about it. It’s probably just your imagination.”

“Yeah probably… Too many mystery novels, I guess,” he said, only half believing himself. He wanted it to just be that, but he had a feeling it was something else. “So how was your new ‘room’? I heard some wolves around here last night. Did they get close to the lake?” he asked.

“Wolves? No I must have been asleep by then. I love the lake though! It’s really nice because of the little river that runs through it and all of the animals there are super friendly! I was chatting with the turtle that lives nearby and he was telling me all about his family…” she said, rambling on all the way to town. He was glad that she liked it here. It wasn’t right to keep her on land for as long as they did. Now she’d at least have a nice watering hole to go back to every day.

The kept chatting as they walked towards the town, Dipper making small comments every now and then while Mabel filled in the bulk of the conversation with stories of her new woodland friends.

When they got to town, they began walking around to see what kinds of shops there were. They passed a few general stores, as well as some places that he’d definitely be checking out later, like the arcade. Soon they passed what had probably been Mabel’s intended destination the whole time: the mall.

Although Gravity Falls was a small town, it was isolated enough from its neighbors that it tried to include whatever stores it could need in the town. This included a mall, filled with the usual high end boutiques, bargain shops, food stalls, etc.

“Oooh Dipper let’s go look around here,” Mabel said excitedly. “I could use some more craft supplies.”

“Uh huh, sure,” he said while rolling his eyes.

They walked inside and, taking a quick look at the map, easily located the craft store. It was small, as to be expected, but the shelves were stocked high with unsold materials. Behind the counter sat an old woman weaving rings of flowers together. She smiled at them as they entered, only pausing in her work to give them a little wave before resuming her weaving. At first she seemed like a normal grandmother, but when she turned to grab a pair of scissors Dipper noticed the faint tinge of green to her skin and the occasional cluster of leaves that seemed to be sprouting right from her. As she threaded the flowers together, he saw them actually growing together in her hands to create an intricately braided crown.

Walking between the aisles, they spotted who the old woman seemed to be making the crowns for. Sitting on the floor in a circle of their belongings were two girls that appeared around their age.

The smaller of the two had long, straight dark hair and pale skin. Her long-sleeved striped green shirt had the sleeves pushed up to the elbows while she bent over to work on something he couldn’t see. When she turned, he saw that she wore a pair of oval glasses that kept repeatedly slipping down her nose. There was a small puddle of water in front of her, and she seemed to have been trying to hold the water suspended in its form straight off of the ground. The result was a flat volcano-shaped sheet of water hovering a few inches in the air that shook at the edges, like it could barely keep its shape.

“Whoa how are you doing that?” asked Mabel, leaning forward in her chair in curiosity.

“Wha-!” the girl squeaked, fumbling with the water in front of her as she tried to keep it from dispersing. It was too late though, and the water fell to the ground, splashing the two girls. The small girl sighed in defeat.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to break your concentration, I’ve just never seen anyone levitate water like that,” said Mabel frowning. “Now you two are all wet.”

“Nah, it’s okay, this happens all the time when Candy’s practicing,” a deep voice said. Dipper looked around to see if another person had entered the shop, but didn’t see anyone. He turned back and paused in realization as the voice continued. “Don’t worry Candy, you’ll get it next time.”

The deep voice actually _had_ come from the second girl. She was large for her age, bulky and with muscles that made Dipper hope he never got on her bad side. Her hair was tied back in a short ponytail with a cute pink hair-tie that matched the t-shirt she wore. Like the old woman, there was a faint green tinge to her skin although she lacked the small flowers and leaves. She stood up and stretched. The faint scent of pine trees and fresh wildflowers drifted through the air.

The smaller girl, Candy, made a swirly motion with her hands and the water followed, creating a small whirlpool before streaming neatly back into an empty water bottle next to her. Screwing the cap back on and placing it in her backpack, she stood and brushed off her skirt before turning to greet them.

“It is okay. I was just practicing how to lift a sheet of water directly off of the ground without changing its shape. Right now it still takes a lot of concentration to lift it while it is mostly flat, but I am getting there. I am Candy by the way, and this is Grenda.”

“Hi! I’m Mabel, and this is my brother Dipper,” she said, before leaning forward and stage-whispering, “We’re twins.”

“That’s cool,” Grenda said. “Hey do you guys want to hang out with us? My grandma was making us flower crowns. She’s a dryad so she can grow them right here.”

“Can we? Dipper and I are here for the summer, but it’s our first time here and we don’t really know a lot of people yet. You see, where we come from, people don’t really like non-humans so this whole place is entirely new to us. I’ve never seen so many different kinds of people in one place before,” said Mabel. Dipper nodded his head in agreement before looking around the shop.

“Mabel I’m going to go look around a bit,” Dipper said. He went to go walk around the isles, not really paying attention to what he was looking at. While the two girls didn’t seem too bad, he couldn’t see himself being best friends with them like Mabel could.

 “Okay bro-bro,” she said before turning back to her new friends.

“Oh, not to be rude or anything, but what are you guys?”

“I am a naiad. It’s basically a kind of river spirit, but I’m not attached to any river in particular,” said Candy, shrugging.

“Wow so that’s how you were able to do that thing with the water!”

“After some practice I found I was able to move the water around outside of rivers. It is quite fun,” she giggled.

“That’s so cool! Grenda what about you? Are you a forest nymph like your grandma too?”

“Nope, she's a dryad but I’m an oread. It’s basically a type of mountain spirit. I can’t really do anything cool like Candy can with water and my skill with plants and stuff is kind of iffy, but I’m great with rocks,” she said.

“Once, she built us a whole fort in 2 minutes all by herself,” Candy whispered to her.

“Really? That’s amazing! I myself am a mermaid,” Mabel said, dramatically tearing the blanket away to reveal her tail.

The two girls gasped in excitement.

“Your tail is so pretty!” they both exclaimed.

“We don’t normally see too many mermaids here. Most of them live in the ocean and migrate south when it gets cold,” said Candy. “But since it’s summer you might get to meet one. I’ve seen a few that swim up-river to the lake here.”

“Wow…I’ve never met another mermaid before,” Mabel said excitedly.

“What if you finally met one, and it was the _one_?” asked Grenda.

The three sighed dreamily at the thought.

“That’d be so romantic,” said Mabel.

The girls continued chatting. Over on Dipper’s end, he was growing bored out of his mind. Having combed each isle at least twice, he was at a loss as for what to do. He was tempted to just leave Mabel with her new best friends, if their loud giggling was anything to go by, except that he didn’t know where he’d go. And he wasn’t about to go wandering around the mall by himself like an idiot.

Dipper headed towards the front of the store and peered out of the glass windows at the passerbys. There were all sorts of people, although most of them looked normal at first glance. Many of them appeared human with only a slightly exaggerated characteristic or two that would give them away. For example, the angry looking couple that just passed by the shop were clearly a pair of vampires if his pale skin and her death glare were anything to go by, and the skinny man in the store across from him was clearly part mouse by the way his nose twitched and he tensed every time a lady with cat ears came too close to him, and the red head that was walking in his direction was obviously part wolf from her lofty gait…

She knocked on the glass, snapping Dipper out of his trance.

“Wendy?”

She chuckled and walked around into the shop.

“What’s up? I saw you staring out the window and figured I’d say hi. What are you doing hanging around in the craft store?” asked Wendy. She had on a pair of jean cutoff shorts and a tank top, with a red flannel shirt tied around her waist. In her hand was a small shopping bag.

“Mabel and I decided to explore the town a little bit but she needed some supplies and we ended up here. It looks like she made some friends so I’m just waiting here until she’s ready to go home I guess. We didn’t really get to see much and I have no idea where I’d be going anyways.” He shrugged.

“Well, I have work later this afternoon, but I’d be happy to show you around before then. I can show you some of the best spots in town, kind of like your own exclusive little tour,” she said grinning.

“Really? That’d be awesome! Let me go tell Mabel first,” he said. Dipper jogged between the isles until he found Mabel and her friends. The three were chatting with the old woman at the counter while decorating themselves with different kinds of flowers. He tapped Mabel on the shoulder, momentarily startling her.

“Dipper! Do you want to join us? We can make you a flower knight in our kingdom. Of course, we’re the princesses so you’ll have to protect us all the time...”

“Sounds great Mabel but I’m going to pass,” he said. “Wendy said she’d show me around Gravity Falls since we kind of got cut short in our exploration.”

“Wendy’s here? Tell her I said hi!”

“I will. I’ll see you later this afternoon. Make sure you stay hydrated and keep your phone on you,” he said with a small wave.

“I know I know,” she said rolling her eyes at him.

Dipper walked back to the front of the shop where Wendy was waiting by the door.

“All set?” she asked.

“Yup, Mabel’s going to hang out with her friends here.” The two walked out of the shop and began their journey towards to nearest exit.

“She works fast doesn’t she,” Wendy said with a laugh.

“Yeah I guess she does,” he said awkwardly. Oh no, they just left and he was already getting nervous. What was he supposed to say? Wendy seemed like she was a few years older than him, but she couldn’t be that different from the few girls he knew right? He began sweating nervously as they walked. He had to think of something to say quickly or he was going to make a total fool out of himself.

“Uh, so what are you doing here? I didn’t really take you for the kind of girl that hangs out at the mall in her free time.” Phew, he did it.

“Haha I’m not really, I just needed to stop by a shop here to pick up a new shirt,” she said as she pulled out a green plaid shirt, not unlike the one that he’d seen the wolf drop last night. “I somehow managed to lose the one I was wearing yesterday and it was kind of my favorite shirt.”

“Huh? Didn’t you drop it behind the shack last night?” he asked. Well, so much for not making a fool out of himself.

“What?” she said, suddenly stopping. She stared at him suspiciously.

Dipper looked at the ground as he kicked the floor, cursing his stupidity. Great, now she’d know that he was basically spying on her last night.

“I, uh, kind of saw you last night. At the shack. From the window. I mean, I saw a red wolf and I thought that it kind of looked like you,” he rambled. “It came towards the shack and picked up a backpack that I guess had your stuff in it, but as it was running away the shirt got caught on a tree and fell out. I’m sorry I shouldn’t have assumed it was you but grunkle Stan had said that you were part wolf and I don’t know, it just kind of reminded me of you and-“

“Dipper it’s fine.” She shushed him, giving him an apologetic look .The two began walking again and left the mall, finally having found the exit. “I didn’t think anyone had seen me last night. We usually try to stay away from the town during the full moon because it’s a forced transformation and we have less control than we normally do,” she sighed.

“We? You mean those other three wolves that were there?” he asked.

“Them? They’re my brothers. They tend to travel together, mostly because the younger ones are still kind of new to this. Usually the three of them stick with my dad, but last night they insisted on following me back here. Honestly, I’ve been around longer than them and I have way more control. They’re the ones that need to worry about getting too close,” she scoffed. They passed by a couple shops but nothing caught Dipper’s, nor Wendy’s, attention.

“Are you usually on your own then? I thought that went against the whole pack-instinct you guys have.” There were many different kinds monsters that traveled in packs, but werewolves tended to have the strongest ties and were almost always found together.

“I am, and it kind of does,” she said, looking up at the sky thought. “I spend a lot more time as a wolf than the rest of my family, but usually on my own. I’ve just gotten used to traveling alone, so it feels a bit weird if I’m stuck following their rules.”

“I know how you feel. Where Mabel and I come from, people don’t really like monsters and stuff. For Mabel, it was crushing because they wouldn’t even give her a chance. For me though…I mean, I am a human so I don’t really know how it feels, but I’ve never felt like I was the same as everyone else because they always see me as just as much of a freak as her just because I have this weird birthmark…” he said rubbing his forehead beneath his hat.

“A weird birthmark? Oh, let me see!” she said, excited.

“I don’t know…”

“You’ve already seen me as a wolf. Come on, let me see the weird side of you too,” she prodded.

Dipper sighed before taking off his hat and facing her.

She gasped.

“The Big Dipper…So that’s how you got your name,” she laughed. “I don’t know why you were worried. That’s pretty cool to have been born with that.”

“You think so? Thanks, you’re one of maybe four people now that actually think that.”

They laughed and continued walking around town. Wendy showed him a lot of different shops, including a small bookstore that he fell in love with. It had just the right amount of dust and weird old novels that you simply couldn’t find in the suburbs. The two ended up in the arcade that he’d passed earlier where they played games for an hour before calling it quits.

“I haven’t just hung out like this in a long time,” she said smiling at him.

Dipper grinned back. “Me neither.”

“How about some lunch? My treat.”

“You don’t have to,” he said. “You already spent so much time showing me around town, and I’m not even that hungry…” However, his stomach betrayed him by grumbling at that moment. Darn, he guessed skipping breakfast hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

“Come on, it’s fine.”

The two walked a couple blocks before reaching a small diner on the edge of the town. It looked a little bit run down, like most of the shops in the town, and appeared to be an old train car remodeled into a restaurant. A large sign on top of it read “Greasy’s Diner” in cursive. As they walked in, Dipper’s first thought was that it looked way out of its time. The interior was decorated to resemble a diner straight from the 50s. There were retro orange padded seats in the booths lining the walls, a long bar in the center, and even one of those strength testing machines near the back wall.

They slid into booth along the wall opposite each other. An old woman in a pink dress came up to them and handed them each menus. She had a lazy eye that stayed closed, showing off her light blue eye shadow.

“Welcome to Greasy’s Diner! What can I get for you, folks?” she drawled.

Dipper tried to quickly skim the menu, but he kept getting distracted by the oddities that filled it. What sort of diner _let_ you order organs fresh from the animal they came from? He was quickly rethinking following Wendy here, even if she had offered to treat him…

“Hey Lazy Susan. I’ll have my usual with water to drink please,” Wendy said. She glanced over at Dipper to see if he had decided, but he was too busy making faces as he read each different item on the menu to notice. “This is Dipper by the way. He’s new in town. He’ll just have the same thing as me. Oh, but cooked. Uh, Lazy Susan are you alright?”

“Dipper…?” she said with a thick voice. Her good eye glazed over and her arms dropped to her sides, the small notebook and pencil she had falling to the ground. She froze where she stood while staring off in the distance, as if she was no longer in the diner around her. When she spoke, it was in a dry, husky voice very different from the one she had greeted them with.

_“Locked out of his kingdom he searches for the key_

_To a realm that crumbles without his strong guide_

_He'll save the one whom without will remain never free_

_The one that long ago bridged the divide”_

She relaxed then, blinking slowly as she regained her surroundings. Dipper turned and stared at Wendy who appeared almost as shocked and confused as he did.

“Uh…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An oread is a mountain spirit, a naiad is a river spirit, and a dryad is a tree spirit. All three are from Greek mythology. A nymph is a nature spirit and could be used to describe all three.


End file.
